Race Letter
Race Letters, also referred to as Faction Letters, are the first character of object classnames. They are used to indicate which faction the object belongs to. Allowable Characters As the name suggests it is conventional to use only letters for race designation, but since the classname is intended for use for any files associated with the object it defines it is presumed that any letter allowed by the Windows file system can be used. This would encompass all ten digits and any special character in the Unicode Extended range excluding angle brackets, colon, double quote, slashes, pipe, question mark and asterisk.Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces on MSDN Races using symbols partially sidestep Battlezone II's asset checking system and do not cause Bad Assets when present but unused; thus far, only DarkFox and Zero Angel have taken advantage of this by using @ to implement the Modern Hadean Crown without preventing users from joining stock games.Big list of BZ2 Mods on matesfamily.org Manipulation Mods for Battlezone II version 1.2 needed to perform several workarounds in order to create additional playable factions, as only the letters i and f were intended to function as race letters. Initially, the pilot object spawned by the game on ejection or hop-out events was hardcoded; ispilo for the ISDF and sspilo for the Scion Convergence. When presented with a non-standard race letter, the game would fail to find a pilot and default to error.odf. Forgotten Enemies exploited this by using the letter e for the Modern Hadean Crown,HELP!!! on bz2md.com while Uler - the only other mod to introduce a new playable race - forewent the usual convention and added a character, using vehicles which were technically Scion and adding u between the Race Letter and Object Letter.Uler (mod) The 1.3 Patch resolved this problem, causing all letters to function the same way. Prior to 1.5, Battlezone's race letters worked in a similar, but slightly stricter, way. The CCA will by default use s when creating pilots or recyclers with a being used in all other situations, NSDF and Black Dogs included. To accommodate the introduction of the full Black Dogs and CRA in Battlezone: The Red Odyssey a code change was made to have b and c function as s did, falling back to a and s respectively if the required objects were not found. The 1.5 patch uses this method if its Any Nation switch is turned off, but when this option is enabled it is capable of using any letter it is provided. Known Race Letters This list, primarily a tool for developers, indicates all race letters used by the games and released mods. That a race letter is already in use does not preclude it being used again unless compatibility with the existing race is desired; in the case of non-race use for worlds, weapons and effects the letter is free for use without risk of harming compatibility, though some bugs may arise. *'A: 'NSDF *'B: 'Black Dogs *'C: 'CRA, Core , Cerberi *'D: 'Dark Planet , Ice Cream / Daedlians *'E: '''Environment , Modern Hadean Crown, ESAF *'F: Scion Convergence, Shin'Kluh *'G: '''Weapons *'H: 'Hadean Crown, Furies *'I: 'ISDF, EDF, ESAF *'M: 'Mire , Miasma , Mechana Defense Network *'N: 'Neutral , Nexus *'O: 'Olympian Council *'P: 'Pluto , Phaer Rhan, Prometheans *'Q: 'QF *'R: 'Rend , Ravens' Claw, Rotons *'S: 'CCA, Scion Convergence , Swarm, Shin'Kluh *'T: 'Swarm, 51'ers, Truman-Era NSDF *'U: 'United Cthonians, Uler *'V: 'Virtuals *'X: '''Effects *@: '''Modern Hadean Crown Notes * : Used to denote which planet the object is designed for. Typically associated with Object Letters c, e, and o. Since 1.3 allowed new race letters, these objects must be prevented from spawning pilots at an ODF level. * : Refer to weapons themselves rather than the associated powerups; will crash the game if placed in the editor. An additional race letter can sometimes be seen after this. * : Used only for Geysers. * : Pre-1.3 version only. These races have since been moved to new letters. * : Used only for Biometal scrap, Pylons, and the Ghost. * : Used as a secondary letter for some Scion weapons and hardcoded for the Scion Pilot. The latter use is obsolete in 1.3 and is typically overwritten by other mods which use s as a race letter. * : Virtual classes used for defining provides and streamlining AIPs only; not placeable objects. * : Refers to audiovisual effects spawned by the game; not part of any race structure. References Category:Nomenclature